Polyhouse floriculture budding in Sonipat

SONIPAT: One-year-old National Horticulture Mission's (NHM) polyhouse project at Gharaunda, has started paying dividends. An Indo-Israel collaboration in horticulture that started in January last year, it is spreading awareness about polyhouse farming, which has caught the fancy of farmers. Taking advantage of NHM's initiatives and Haryana government's subsidies, Sonipat got its first polyhouse floriculture farm.

Ravinder Mohan Dahiya, the farmer who established the farm said, "We have been in this farming (polyhouse floriculture) for over six months. As of now we are concentrating on lilies but flowers like marigold, sunflower and rose etc. are definitely on our radar."

Extolling the practice, the farmer said that this particular style helps farmers to save their produce from pests. He attributed the advantage to the fact that the technique acts as a firewall from pests to enter. "That helps you save a lot of money on pesticides."

He said, "The focus remains on Delhi market, including scope from the national capital region. The flower business has been growing exponentially and its proximity to Sonipat is the biggest plus point." The cost of setting up a polyhouse with the help of subsidies is not much. He said, "It costs somewhere around Rs 125 per square metre to install drp irrigation." For walking tunnels (structure is like a tunnel) and net house, the investment comes close to Rs 600 per square metre. NVPH incurs an investment of Rs 900 per square metre."

Mr Ravinder was also categorical about returns on investment. "One crop can be reaped in just three months with 55-60 percent returns on investment, while using all these techniques." He, however, maintained that drip irrigation - which can be adopted by small farmers also - could be done in open farm with plastic culture at the bottom of the plants protecting them from weeds and saving expenses on medicines. "It requires very little investments, besides a 90 percent subsidy," he said.

So far, three floriculture polyhouses have been established in Sonipat. According to sources, NHM has allotted Rs 700 crore for polyhouse farming (for vegetable, fruits and flowers) this year as subsidies.

TECH SUPPORT

"The technologies that are being used in our polyhouses are completely supplied by Israel. Their technical expert visits our farms for a fortnight every month to update our experts and farmers with the latest developments," said AS Saini, joint director of Haryana Horticulture Department.

"Israel has the expertise in horticulture farming and its technology is widely accepted across continents to enhance vegetable production. This motivated us to seek their expertise in technology and know finer nuances about farming," said Mr Saini.

"NHM has extended its hand to farmers by providing 50 percent subsidy on adopting the technique. The NHM initiative has also invited the state government's attention attracting an additional subsidy of 15 percent for farmers," said Surinder Singh Dahiya, former deputy director of horticulture in Haryana.

Mr Dahiya added, "The government has been magnanimous to farmers adopting Israeli techniques. They have been granted 40 percent subsidy for drip irrigation too. Capitalising this opportunity, farmers are showing interest in drip irrigation exclusively for polyhouse floriculture. It requires only 10 percent of the net investment from the farmers. On top of it, income generated from this venture is 100 percent tax-empted," informed the former deputy director.

He added that there are other horticulture techniques that can be used in polyhouse floriculture viz naturally ventilated poly houses (NVPH), net house and walking tunnels. A farmer is eligible for 65 percent subsidy in all these techniques (50 percent coming from NHM and 15 percent from the Haryana government).

Meanwhile in drip irrigation technique, it is 90 percent, (50 percent from NHM, and 40 percent from the state government).

ISRAELI CONNECTION

"Green house farming, hi-tech nurseries, NVPH, vegetable farming without the use of soil, poly culture and drip irrigation are the technologies that the Indian government has acquired from us," said Uri Rubinstein, an Israeli counsellor for international cooperation, science and agriculture.

Mr Rubinstein added, "The endeavour has been to share our expertise through applied research and share the findings with the Haryana government, which they pass on to local farmers." "Generally open house floriculture is done during winters. Polyhouse technique scores over open house irrigation in this regard.

It can be done for eight months in a calendar year owing to temperature control mechanism inside polyhouses by 10-15 degrees," said Dr SK Arora, horticulture expert at the Centre for Excellence in Gharaunda. The wastage of flowers goes down by 15-20 percent with the Israeli technique. The plants are strong as their growth is uniform. This ensures higher margins of profits.

Dr Arora advised farmers, who have still not come to terms with the practice, "A farmer can expect to devote itself completely on floriculture and need not shift to vegetable farming. This usually happens to farmers who indulge in floriculture and do not practice polyhouse."

In vegetable farming in polyhouses, seedlings are supplied but in floriculture, farmers have to buy bulbs. Sonipat farmers however, are importing bulbs from Holland.